"The magic of Christmas is not in the presents, but in His presence."

With our Nativity all over for this year, we were able to watch our Year 1 and 2 friends perform their Christmas Nativity on Tuesday. We absolutely loved it and Reception were so happy and proud of their friends!

In class, we received an unusual telephone which had a red and green hat and some elf-like boots. When the phone finally rang for the first time, our suspicions were right... it was the elves. The elves explained that they are so busy at the moment, they needed some help from Reception… and Reception were desperate to help the elves. First, we needed to help the elves to write their Christmas lists and once we had done this, we then needed to help with their shopping list. The elves have certainly kept us busy this week!

Certificates

Enthusiastic Bobby bee Rory for... Your wonderful enthusiasm and excitement, you are a delight Rory. You have also been very focused this week. I was so impressed with the Cafod card that you made after watching how far some children have to walk to get clean water. Well done Rory!

Enthusiastic Bobby bee Seth for… Being such an enthusiastic member of our class Seth! You were desperate to help the elves this week after they rang our class. This enthusiasm is something that Miss Neves and I notice each and every day, and it is this enthusiasm that has had such a great impact on your achievements this term in school. Well done Seth!

Phonics

This weeks focus word is ‘go’. Please practise reading and writing this word as it is one of our High Frequency words, that we aim for our Reception children to be able to read, by sight, at the end of Reception. Thank you.

Silly Socks and Christmas jumper day

If you forgot to bring in your £1 on Friday, please bring this in on Monday so that we are able to send the money off to Brian House.

Christmas Cards

Please bring in your CAFOD donations before Wednesday next week so that we are able to sit down as a class and choose what World gifts we will buy. Thank you.

Christmas party

On Thursday we have our infant Christmas party. Your child can come into school wearing their favourite party clothes (just make sure they have shoes that are suitable for play times outside). As a treat, the children are allowed to bring in one still drink and one snack, such as; juice or a milkshake, a chocolate bar, biscuit bar or crisps.

We hope that you all have a wonderful weekend together as a family.

Miss Bassett, Miss Neves and Mrs Malley

Home Learning 13.12.19

In class we have been practising cursive handwriting. The children have learned ‘over and back round’ letters so far. I have given the children a sheet to practise on and be stuck into their home learning book. If they would like to have an extra practise in their home learning books too, that would be super.

Homework to be handed in on Thursday 19th December

Christmas Songs

Please put some good practice in this weekend of ALL Christmas songs so that you know the words for our performance.

Purple Mash

You have two 2do’s! A Nativity animation and a nativity newspaper report. If you want to be reminded about HOW to write a newspaper report, please look on the help section, where I have put a newspaper report toolkit!

This week...

Another busy week at nursery full of festive fun! Everyone has designed their own Christmas card (they are all very lovely), and made a special bauble to take home for your Christmas tree.

The children have continued to sing the Nativity songs throughout the week. I am sure we could take it to the West End they are so good! They have also been creating Bethlehem in all areas of the continuous provision from wooden bricks and every other type of resource.

Next week, we will be baking a splendid birthday cake for Baby Jesus. The children have chosen to make a gooey chocolate cake covered in sweets! We will all share it at the Christmas party on Thursday. We can’t wait. We sent home your child’s party invitation this week, keep a look out for it, and don’t forget Christmas party clothes are a must!

Homework to be handed in Wednesday 18th December

Christmas Concert Preparation - The main homework this week is to practice and learn the words off by heart for the songs for our Christmas Concert next week.

READING- Continue to read lots of at home- I am so pleased with the progress the children are making, we need to keep this up!

If you haven’t already, please complete a book review for a book you are reading on purple mash, it will be under the 2do list section ready for you.

SPELLING- One more week to practice our spelling focus. There were some great pictures made from these spellings- well done.

Heart Special Remember Strength Appear Breath

Final homework for this term- to be handed in on Thursday December 19th

Singing hymns

Know your songs for the concert on Tuesday

Reading

Most children have reached their reading target set for this half term. There is still time for you to finish the novel you are currently reading so you too can get meet target- go for it!!!

Maths

We have been applying our understanding of addition and subtraction in problems (varied fluency) and one of the lessens involved finding the missing numbers in a column addition problem. To solve these puzzles the child has to understand the procedure - column addition deeply. Have a go at IXL B3

Science on Purple Mash

Complete the science investigation planning sheet. We have discussed the investigation in class- Mrs Hotchkiss’ shoes are two pictures below. We don’t have the results yet so leave this part out. We will be using your planner in class next week!

Some super newspaper reports about a miracle on Mr Zuckerman's farm!

Year 6 Home Learning - Wednesday 11th December

Spelling - These are the next set of common exception words that need to be learnt.

Maths - Please complete C1, C2, C3, C4, C5 and C6 on IXL. These all involve the multiplication strands that we have been working on. Continue with C15 and C16. Please can you complete these ready for Monday 6th January 2020.

Science - There are two Purple Mash tasks to complete. These should have been started in school, please finish them at home. As always, please think about the quality of your writing and what we have been working on in class.

A Galapogas Island Postcard

A interview with Charles Darwin

Computing - Next week we will be starting our computer science lessons and will be coding. What can you discover about the programs that we will be using? Have a play at home on them and make a list of what you have found out? Why not make a tutorial video?

'Wilbur didn’t want food, he wanted love. He wanted a friend—someone who would play with him.' (E.B White - Charlotte's Web)

It has been a really delightful week in Year 4. Despite coughs and colds we have been such enthusiastic learners! We have delved right into our Charlotte’s Web novel and feel like the characters are our new friends! We also looked closely at the subject of friendship - which is explored in the novel. We thought about what makes a good friend and how we could offer this friendship to others. We also thought about what might upset people and put them off being friends with us, using characters from the novel as an example.

We have learned about formal and informal language - all children wrote formally to Charlotte when they were ‘making her acquaintance!’ Alongside practising many reading skills, such as performing parts aloud, inferring and finding evidence to prove a point, we have been collecting vocabulary and using it when we talk and write!

In maths we have all been ‘Tommy Turtles’ who have a go and work really hard on our addition and subtraction strategies. We are now ready to begin column addition and subtraction next week.

On Wednesday, we had a lovely lesson all about angels. Children asked so many interesting questions about them then we found evidence from the bible to see what angels do. We learned a lovely prayer about angels and then children formulated their own beliefs about what they think angels are and where they come from. It was beautiful when they looked at each others ideas and decided they had changed their beliefs slightly according to what their partner had said. The mysteries of our faith are so interesting to ponder upon!

Let’s celebrate!

This week, the french stars were Aya and Daniel. Our swimming stars were Lily A and Clayton. A Tommy Turtle certificate went to Lily A, who is a brave learner. She has a good go at anything! Clayton received a Kiki Chameleon certificate for voicing his deep and interesting thoughts in class. Well done!

Notices

Please remember flutes on Monday for our Flute concert which takes place at 2.45 in the hall - you are most welcome.

Next Friday is Christmas jumpers and silly socks day. Please bring a kind donation of £1 which we will give to Brian House. This was Year 5’s idea to raise as much money as possible for those less fortunate than them.

Our Key Stage 2 Christmas party is on Wednesday 18th December. Children can come in their own clothes (Christmasy if they wish) They may bring one special snack on this day (eg/ a bar of chocolate or a packet of crisps and also a drink (not fizzy please)

Next week is our final week of swimming for this term.

Our final Advent mass is next Friday at 8am at school. It is so lovely to share this with so many of you each week.

Key Stage 2 Christmas performance in church on Tuesday 17th December at 2.00pm and at 6.30pm.

Have a lovely weekend with your little cherubs! God bless you all..

Mrs Lyons, Mrs Mather, Mrs Kennedy and Miss Atkinson

Homework to be completed for Thursday 12th December

Christmas songs

Please make it your priority to learn the words of our Christmas songs off by heart. Maybe practise two a night. We are doing our first rehearsal in church on Monday!

Flute

Please practise all songs for our first flute concert on Monday.

Maths

We have been practising lots of strategies in addition and subtraction. Children have brought home a sheet to complete where they choose and practise them.

Charlotte’s Web

Please read the extract from Charlotte’s web to your family. Don’t forget to EMPHASIZE the words in italics. Or you could all choose to take a part to read! Tell your family all about our story so far!

Year 2 Home Learning - 6.12.19

I must apologise! The home learning blog hadn’t uploaded from last week!

Maths

I have attached some Christmas addition and subtraction sheets that can be completed at anytime up to Christmas. I understand that Christmas can be an incredibly busy time of year and thought that these might be something nice for the children to complete when they have some spare minutes to keep their learning ticking along.

English

Please complete the attached English activity mat.

Spellings

Set 7 from the spelling pack - have do little out our saw

Doubling the consonant and adding ‘ing/taking off the ‘e’ and adding ‘ing’ - tripping clapping shopping shining racing making

English IXL

A.1 A.2

B.1 B.2 B.3 B.4

C.1 C.2 C.3

E.1 E.2 E.3

K.1 K.2 K.3

L.1 L.2 L.3 L.4

M.1 M.2 M.3 M.4

O.1 O.2 O.3 O.4 O.9 O.10 O.11 O.12

Q.1 Q.2 Q.3 Q.4 Q.5 Q.6

Maths IXL

A.1 A.2 A.3 A.4 A.5 A.6 A.7 A.8 A.9 A.10 A.11 A.20 A.21 A.22 A.24 A.25 A.26 A.27

B.1 B.2 B.3 B.4

D.1 D.2 D.3 D.4 D.5 D.6 D.7 D.8 D.9 D.10 D.11 D.12

E.1 E.2 E.3 E.4 E.5

H.1 H.2 H.3 H.4

NATIVITY PARTS PLEASE!

Miss Woodend

'Once in our world, a stable had something in it that was bigger than our whole world' C.S.Lewis

This week has been all about our writing. We started the week off by showering our thoughts and ideas of the characteristics of each of our dragons- what they look like, where they are found and their unique characteristics. Once we had gathered enough information, the children then wrote their first independent non-chronological report on their chosen dragon. I can’t wait to get marking them! In Maths we are continuing with our addition and subtraction and in RE we have been looking at the true meaning of advent, reflecting on ways we celebrate this special time, in particular the symbolic meaning to the advent wreath. Today we have started our Geography topic on the Arctic, which will be our big focus over the next couple of weeks.

Advent Mass was beautiful once again this morning, with so many families coming to share this time of reflection. Please don’t forget that the last Advent Mass is taking place Next Friday at 8am in the hall. At this incredibly busy time of year, it is important to take time for ourselves and be reminded of the true reasons to celebrate at Christmas.

The awards this week go to …

Thank you Amber for being such a Curious Clownish learner- for asking all the right questions and always wanting to find out more.

Julia you have been such a Kiki Chameleon- well done for showing your creativity in your writing and doing extra writing at home!

Important Information…

Christmas Cards - We had a great chat in class today about Christmas cards and how every year at Christmas, instead of spending money and sending out cards, it is a much kinder idea in the season of Advent to collect the money and choose a Cafod World Gift to buy from us all. We agreed that the children could create or buy one card for the class and then donate any money they would spend on cards to our collection. As we get enough money, we will look at the World Gifts as a class and decide on the ones we would like to purchase for those less fortunate than ourselves.

Christmas jumper and silly sock day on Friday 13th December - Year 5 have organised the event and are hoping to raise over £1000 for local charity Brian House. On this day, children can wear their own clothes with a Christmas jumper and/or silly socks for a small donation of £1.

Our Key stage 2 Christmas performance is on Tuesday 17th December at 2pm and again at 6.30pm. The songs they sing are beautiful

Party day Wednesday 18th December. Drink (not fizzy) and fun snack (chocolate or crisps)- PARTY CLOTHES- sensible shoes for serious dancing!

"Jesus is the Gift that perfectly fits the size of every heart."

Where to begin? A huge well done to all of our children! They were all fantastic! The way that they helped one another, spoke their lines and sang so beautifully, was just amazing. We are all so proud of them. Thank you for all of your support by practising lines at home to make sure they were ready to share the story of Jesus’ birth.

Certificates

Co-operative Roger Robin Tilly for… Being such a thoughtful and caring young girl. You spend so much of your time making beautiful pictures and gifts for your friends and for our worship area. Your love for Jesus Christ is so special, and you use this to follow in his footsteps with your beautiful behaviour. Well done Tilly!

Focused Cooper Crab Rose for… Always concentrating so carefully during our learning. Your effort and hard work shows in all of the wonderful work that you do. It was lovely to see you on the stage with so much confidence during our Nativity. Well done Rose!

Phonics

This weeks focus word is no. Please practise reading and writing this word, as it is one of our High Frequency words that we aim for our Reception children to be able to read, by sight, at the end of Reception. Thank you. 

Silly Sock and Christmas jumper day

On Friday 13th December we are asking children and teachers to wear their best Christmas jumper and silly socks. This is because Year 6 would like to raise £1,000 for Brian House. Please bring £1 to school on this day to help Year 6 reach their target. Thank you.

Christmas Cards

At our school we decided many years ago to save/collect the money that we would spend on Christmas cards to buy a special world gift off Cafod’s website. Last year in Reception we were able to buy a watering pump to help a family in Africa have safe water to drink.

Nativity DVD

If you are wanting to buy a DVD of our Nativity, please return your form with the money ASAP. We will be sending off the amount of copies to the company soon, so please don’t miss out.

We hope that you all have a wonderful weekend together as a family.

Miss Bassett, Miss Neves and Mrs Malley

We are so proud!

I am sure you will agree that the children told the story of the birth of Christ splendidly in their Nativity play this week. Everyone was so proud of their achievements. Clearly their confidence knows no boundaries!

I would just like to remind you that the Foundation/KS1 Christmas party is on Thursday 19th December 9.30-11.30 am. All the children are invited to join us…party clothes are a must!! However, if it is not your child’s usual session we would be grateful if you could bring your child at 9.30 am and the collect them promptly at 11.30 am.

Also, we break for the Christmas holidays on Friday 20th December at 2 pm.